Egypt's new Prime Minister, Hisham Qandil, yesterday August 2 announced his cabinet that is mostly composed of bureaucrats in the first Moslem Brotherhood-led administration. The cabinet is the first under newly elected President Mohamed Mursi, a senior Moslem Brotherhood official, who tasked Qandil with the job of selecting the cabinet.
The government, which replaces an interim one which took office last year, was also sworn in yesterday by President Mursi. Al Jazeera Television reported that of the 20 ministers, Moslem Brotherhood members are to fill two posts - Higher Education and the Housing ministries. Mustafa Musaad, who was responsible for educational policy during the President’s election campaign, becomes Education Minister while Tariq Wafiq who headed the Freedom and Justice Party’s housing committee, becomes Housing Minister.
Former military ruler, Mohammed Hussein Tantawi is Defence Minister. The cabinet is dominated by civil servants similar to the era of former President Hosni Mubarak when government was run by technocrats, Reuters news agency noted. Incumbents who kept their jobs included Finance Minister, Mumtaz al-Saeed and Foreign Minister, Mohamed Amr Kamel, both of them career bureaucrats. The new Interior Minister is Ahmed Gamal el-Din, a career policeman like those who held the job under Mubarak.
Another key post, the Ministry of Religious Endowments, went to Osama al-Abd, the President of al-Azhar University. Appeals Court judge, Ahmed Mekky was made Justice Minister. Hisham Qandil, the country’s former Irrigation Minister, was appointed by Mursi last week. At 49 years, he is the youngest Prime Minister since Gamal Abdel Nasser who came to power in 1954 both as Head of State and Government.
